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7 Lean Manufacturing Lessons from a Shingo Prize Winner

7th January 2015

When it comes to management systems
and continuous improvement programs, Lean Manufacturing is one of the most
widely used today. In fact, our 2013 Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM)
survey revealed that three in every ten senior leaders had a Lean program in
place or planned to within a year. This was the most chosen response, in front
of ISO 9001, Operational Excellence, Six Sigma, and more.

Despite its prevalence, initiating
and then sustaining a Lean Manufacturing strategy can be a daunting task,
typically requiring cultural and business process transformation. To gain some
perspective, we recently spoke with Eric Pope, VP of Operations at tier 1 oil
and gas supplier and 2011 Shingo Prize winning US Synthetic. Pope was a pioneer
in US Synthetic's Lean initiative back in 2004, and leads the ever-evolving
journey today.

In this post, we'll share seven
lessons we took from our conversation with Pope on how to effectively implement
and execute on a Lean Manufacturing strategy. Although there are valuable
insights within each of these lessons, it's important to remember that each
organization faces a unique situation and there's a wide range of thought when
it comes to Lean. We'll be writing more on this topic in the future.

The misalignment of goals is often
the reason for failed initiatives. What happens on the shop floor is no
exception. When starting your Lean journey, make sure to clearly define what
success means for the overall business and then align your Lean goals as well
as resources with them. As Pope explained, "When you separate Lean from the
business it almost never gets traction."

2. Lean is about
Running "Experiments" to See What Works and What Doesn't

You don't need years of experience
with Lean to deploy a successful Lean strategy. Well before winning the Shingo
Prize, Pope and US Synthetic's now-CEO Rob Galloway were "an R&D guy and a
production manager" with an idea. What you do need is a culture of personnel
capable of experimenting with new ways for executing processes the ability to
make continuous improvement adaptations on the fly.

3. Leverage
Third-Party Expertise as an Accelerator rather than a Crutch

Pope acknowledged that external
consultants can be beneficial to your Lean strategy, but he warns that they
should be used in the right way. Every Lean journey needs a leader and that
person has to come from within. Pope said, "The best consultants are the ones
that can enable skill???even multiply skill???very quickly and then get out. If
they're not doing that, then they're just holding the organization back."

4. Starting a Lean
Journey is Different from Maintaining One in Progress

At the start of a Lean journey,
there's more of a set of principles to go by rather than a formalized process.
But Pope explained that "bringing people onduringyour
lean journey requires a whole different methodology." As time goes on and new
employees come on board, it's important to start developing a scalable
structure around how Lean should be taught and then applied.

5. Make Every
Employee Not Just a Lean Practitioner but a Lean Leader

Lean is very much-so a mindset.
Professionals that have bought into Lean generally find themselves applying its
principles without blinking an eye. Where it starts becoming astronomically
more powerful, however, is when that mindset pervades across the organization.
And for that to happen, Pope said employees need "not only have the skills to
apply Lean tools, but also the capability to teach them."

6. Empowered
Employees are Better for Business

Many leaders approach Lean with this
type of mentality: "We need to implement Lean so we can cut costs." While
that's a noble goal, it doesn't necessarily drive much long-term business
value. Pope offers up an alternative set of advice. His approach to lean has
been to focus on developing better, more capable employees, and then to let
that be the driver of other operational and business benefits.

7. The Lean
Manufacturing Journey is a Continuous Improvement Journey

Some leaders overthink the initiation
of the Lean journey, assuming it can only begin once a robust plan is in place.
But for many businesses???case in point, US Synthetic???it starts out as nothing
more than an experiment. Refinement, calibration, and organizational buy-in are
all part of the journey. When executed effectively, Lean can be
self-sustaining, self-validating and should scale and mature organically. And,
as mentioned, sometimes it can even be accelerated by leveraging third-party
expertise.

People: The Key to
a Successful Lean Manufacturing Journey

Since starting its Lean "experiments"
back in 2004, US Synthetic has captured 50% of the market share, up from 20%.
The company has also improved productivity by 106%. While many changes have
taken place over the years, one thing that's remained consistent is Pope's
focus on using Lean as a means for building better employees rather than
diverting attention to the prospect of other short term gains.

He said, "If you follow that formula
and engrain it into your employees' way of thinking??? solving problems over
time???your business is going to grow. Everything in our lean journey has been
about 'How do I improve value for the customer?' not 'How do I improve costs?'
and that has been our biggest driver of success."